In Russia, the Group Stage of 2018 World Cup is over and all the winners of the World Cup final 16 matches were determined. One of the most sensational events has become the exit of German national team who was the champion of 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Among European teams, 10 teams got in the playoffs, only 4 teams remained in the group. South American teams performed even better: 4 of 5 teams reached the next level of competition, while all the African teams went back home. Of 32 teams that started the competition for the World Cup, 16 remained in the tournament.

Only three national teams won three matches out of three - Uruguay, Croatia and Belgium. At the same time, the Belgians are the most productive team - nine goals scored. The worst team was Panama - 11 goals scored against. In total, there were 122 goals scored during the Group Stage (an average of 2.5 per match). The record was broken by the number of own goals - nine. Previously, the maximum number of own goals was noted at 1998 World Cup in France - six. In addition, a record of 24 penalties were fixed. The previous world championship record was 18 penalties.

In total, the football matches during the Group Stage of 2018 World Cup were visited by 2 million 178 thousand 894 spectators. The International Football Federation reported on June 21 that more than 2.6 million tickets were distributed, sales will continue until July 15.

Russia and Spain have already played in the 16 Finals (the sensational victory of Russia with 1:1 score), as well as Uruguay and Portugal (2:1 in favor of Uruguay), France and Argentina (4:3 in favor of France), Croatia and Denmark (1:1 with the victory of Croatia). The following matches are to be played in the upcoming 2 days: Belgium with Japan, England with Colombia, Brazil with Mexico, Switzerland with Sweden.

According to Colin Smith, the director of the FIFA department, Russia managed to organize an amazing world championship, which left players, fans and sponsors delighted.

Arkady Dvorkovich, the chairman of the Organizing Committee "Russia-2018", Deputy Prime Minister shared the results of the study concerning the impact of the FIFA 2018 World Cup in Russia™ in economic, social and environmental spheres of the country. Alexey Sorokin, the Director General of the Organizing Committee, also participated in the interview.

They presented the results of the evaluation of short-term and long-term effects of preparation to the World Cup in terms of production of additional gross domestic product, creation of jobs, incomes of the population, influence on the development of hosting regions, human capital, social and environmental conditions. According to Arkady Dvorkovich, the total contribution of the preparation and holding of 2018 World Cup will amount to 867 billion rubles in Russia's GDP for 2013-2018 years.

According to the research, 210 thousand of Russians received additional skills in organizing and holding large tournaments.

Thousands of specialists raised their qualifications in the following fields:

• In the Construction industry, 79 thousand specialists raised their qualifications.
• In the field of hotel and restaurant business, 38 thousand raised their qualifications.
• In the transport and communications industry - 18 thousand raised their qualifications.
• Other communal, social and personal services - 18 thousand raised their qualifications.
• In the event organization of the tournament - 5 thousand raised their qualifications.

The presented report highlights a huge influence of the tournament on the development of physical culture and sports. Eight stadiums were built, four arenas were reconstructed and 95 training grounds were created in the country for the preparation to the event.

In preparation for the tournament, 10 projects for the construction and modernization of water supply and sewerage systems, 4 infrastructure upgrading projects for the integrated processing and storage of solid domestic waste (SDW) were implemented.

16 regional city hospitals were reconstructed. In Volgograd, a helipad for medical helicopters was built, and in Kaliningrad, a new site for the emergency aid corps was constructed.

To health care facilities were reconstructe in Samara including intensive care, X-ray and endoscopy. 622 ambulance cars were purchased.

During the preparation period, 20 railway stations were reconstructed and modernized with the length of constructed and reconstructed roads being 178 km. The capacity of airports in the cities hosting tournament games has increased by at least 30% (Nizhny Novgorod), and in five cities this figure has exceeded 100%: in Volgograd (280%), Samara (130%), Rostov-on-Don (120%), Saransk (100%) and Yekaterinburg (100%).

New metro stations were opened in three cities of Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow and St. Petersburg. In all cities that are hosting meetings, the ground transportation has been updated: from 5% in St. Petersburg to 74% in Kazan.

"We conducted a very large research on the basis of data available from official programs, the Federal State Statistics Service and all the documents related to the 2018 World Cup," - Alexei Sorokin said. "By making calculations, we excluded all events and facilities that do not have any connection with our estimates, for example, "Spartak" stadium in St. Petersburg and CSKA stadium in Moscow are not included in our costs."

The report recalls that during the tournament, 360 cultural and educational events are taking place in the country. It is noted that the high quality of the World Championship depends on the fulfillment of three main conditions: the friendly attitude and competence of volunteers, the qualitative organization of the event and security. It is expected that the tournament will boost the image of the country: 77% of Russians believe that hosting the tournament contributes to the country's prestige.

The World Championship is held in 11 cities: Moscow, Kaliningrad, St. Petersburg, Volgograd, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Saransk, Rostov-on-Don, Sochi and Yekaterinburg.

Information source: «Оргкомитет "Россия-2018" рассказал о влиянии ЧМ-2018 на развитие страны»

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